Doraville doesn’t often make the lists of the best or most popular places to live in Atlanta, but you may want to give it a look anyway, especially if you will be working in the area or in nearby downtown Atlanta.

Doraville is an Atlanta suburb, but feels more urban than the suburbs further away from Atlanta do. At the same time, it doesn’t feel as urban as Buckhead, Midtown, or the downtown Atlanta areas. Doraville is sort of like a hidden gem right now. There is a lot to love about the area, and the real estate market is booming, but not quite everyone has realized it just yet. Stick around until the end to learn more about this wonderful city!

People from all over the country move to Atlanta every day, and I have helped people buy homes all over the Atlanta area. My goal with the videos on my channel is to help you learn about the area and the local real estate market. If you are looking for a home in Doraville, or anywhere else in Atlanta, please get in touch with me! I’ve had the joy of helping clients relocate to Georgia!

A thriving city in the early and mid-1900s thanks to the railroad, a General Motors plant, and several plants in neighboring Chamblee, Doraville experienced a decline when the plants started to close in the 1980s, ending with the closure of the GM plant in 2009. During this time, it experienced a revival of sorts by becoming home to thousands of Asian and Hispanic immigrants and becoming the hub of diversity that it is known for today. In the past few years, the city has started to undergo revitalization and lots of new development.

Let’s talk about the pros and cons of living in Doraville, GA now in 2023.

Pro 1: Location. You know how the real estate saying goes, “location, location, location”. You can’t beat the location of Doraville. Located in northern Dekalb County, Doraville is partly inside the perimeter and partly outside the perimeter. If you are not familiar with Atlanta, the perimeter is what locals call I-285, the interstate that circles Atlanta. Areas outside the perimeter are considered suburban and areas inside are more urban.

With I-285 running right through Doraville, as well 3 north-south routes (I-85 on the east, Buford Highway in the center, and Peachtree Boulevard on the west), living in Doraville makes a commute into Atlanta for work easy as you can just hop on the interstate. You will have to deal with some traffic because it is metro Atlanta, but you will have much less traffic to deal with than those who live in the outer suburbs and are commuting into Atlanta.

What’s even better is that Doraville is located on the Marta gold line. Marta is Atlanta’s light rail system and you can hop on a train here and take it into the city. There are also several Marta bus stops in the area.

This prime location is precisely why Doraville is becoming increasingly popular.

Con 1: Schools. Doraville is in DeKalb County, and DeKalb County’s school system unfortunately doesn’t have the best reputation, though there are some great schools in the system. Doraville is served by two public high schools, Chamblee and Cross Keys. There are a little over 400 public high schools in Georgia, and US News & World Report ranked 37^th best in the state while Cross Keys ranked #187 in the state.

Both of these schools are majority minority, with Chamblee being a very diverse school and Cross Keys having a 90% Hispanic student body. Both schools also serve many English language learners.

The graduation rate at Chamblee was #397^th in the state in 2022, compared to Cross Keys at #405. Remember though that statistics are only part of the picture. I encourage you to research the schools that your potential new home is zoned for to see whether or not they will be a good match for your family.

Pro 2: Diversity. Doraville is known for its ethnic diversity. Several decades ago, Doraville became home to Atlanta’s first Koreatown. If you would like to learn more about the Korean community in Atlanta, I’ve got an entire video dedicated to that! Not only Koreans settled in Doraville, but it also became home to immigrants from across Asia as well as many Hispanic and African immigrants.

Buford Highway runs through Doraville, and part of it is known as the “International Corridor”. The restaurants here give a delicious sampling of the diversity that Doraville is known for. You’ll find wonderfully authentic cuisine from across the globe. There are Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Ethiopian, Mexican, Salvadoran restaurants just to name a handful of the culinary cuisine you’ll find in Doraville.

If you move to Doraville and like good food, you will love having such a variety of restaurants close to home.

There’s also a Super H-Mart in Doraville, which is a wonderful Asian supermarket if you are not familiar with those. You’ll definitely want to check it out!

Con 2: Crime. Per lifestyle website Neighborhood Scout, Doraville has a crime rating of 3. On their index, 100 is the safest possible ranking, so a ranking of 3 means they believe Doraville is safer than only 3% of the cities in the country.  But before you panic and cross Doraville off your list, let’s dive a bit deeper. The majority of the crimes in Doraville are property crimes, not violent crimes.

In fact, violent crime is not that much more common in Doraville than the state as a whole, with a rate of 5.27 violet crimes per 1000 people in Doraville and 4 per 1000 people in Georgia.

Property crime however is a different story. The rate of property crime in Doraville is over twice that in Georgia as a whole. There are 48.39 property crimes per 1000 people in Doraville and only 20.07 per 1000 people in Georgia as a whole.

There is more crime in Doraville than in other parts of Atlanta, so that is something to keep in mind. But being street smart and doing things such as locking your home, being aware of your surroundings, and not keeping valuables in your car will go a long way towards lowering your risk of becoming a victim.

Pro 3: Affordability. At the moment, affordability is a pro for Doraville. But I can see that changing in a few years as it gentrifies and becomes increasingly popular. Keep in mind that affordability is relative and home prices and rents in Doraville have been rising over the past few years as the current development boom has been underway.  Doraville is generally a more affordable option than other nearby communities like Buckhead or Dunwoody. That said, you will pay much more for new construction here than you will an older home.

As an example, the average sold price for a townhome Doraville in the past 4 months was $326,000. But a brand-new townhome sold in that same time period for just under $550,000. That puts it in a competitive price range as townhomes in Dunwoody, where they tend to sell from the $400,000’s to the mid-$600,000s.

So, Doraville can be a more affordable way to live inside the Perimeter, but it can also cost you just as much as some of the other popular areas. It all depends on the age of the home you purchase and where in Doraville it is located.

Con 3: Changing Landsape. Doraville is undergoing major redevelopment right now, as I mentioned. As is common with gentrification, long-time residents and businesses sometimes get priced out of the area. Many long time restaurant owners and business owners have voiced concern about being able to remain in business as the area becomes more expensive.

The diversity that Doraville is known for will likely remain as people from all over the country, and really the world, continue to move to Atlanta, but it remains to be see how much the current landscape of family owned and run restaurants and businesses will change over the next several years.

Pro 4: Downtown Redevelopment Plan. Doraville is a city with a plan. The city’s leadership is taking full advantage of its prime location and there are many large-scale development projects that have either recently been completed, are in process right now, or are planned for the future.

Here’s a quick overview of just two projects: The former General Motors plant site will become a full-fledged movie studio called Assembly Studios. NBC Universal has signed a multi-contract to run the complex, which is expected to open in 2023. There are also plans to turn a portion of the former GM site into a brand-new, mult-use city center for Doraville with residences, restaurants, retail, office space, and more.

There have been other new residential and retail developments built as well. There are a lot of exciting things happening in Doraville right now!

Con 4: Lack of Community Events. This may not matter at all to you, or it may matter a lot. Doraville does have a handful of city-sponsored events each year, such as for the 4^th of July and the summer movie series, but they do not have nearly the number of events some other cities in the metro area host, especially cities like Duluth that are known for their events and bustling downtowns.

I do imagine that will change over the next few years as Doraville gets a new city center, but right now there are not the same number of city-sponsored festivals and events that you’ll find elsewhere.

There you have it! Hopefully you feel like you know more about Doraville, Georgia now than you did at the start of the video. If your curiosity has been piqued and you would like to learn more about Doraville and buying a home here, please reach out! I would love to hear how I can serve you.

If you haven’t already, please do hit subscribe so you can be alerted when new videos come out, and also head to my video list if you’d like to check out some more videos on Metro Atlanta. Until next time!

Doraville is a diverse, international city located in Dekalb County, Georgia.   This wonderful city is located 10 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta. Doraville was put on the map when General Motors opened a new assembly plant in this location during the 1940s.  Doraville is a pretty small city.  With a population of 10,265 people and four constituent neighborhoods, Doraville is the 103rd largest community in Georgia. Doraville’s location makes it excellent for travel into and out of the area.  It’s 3 miles from Peachtree-DeKalb Airport (corporate airport), Direct access to the Norfolk Southern rail corridor and Doraville MARTA station, located within Atlanta’s Technology Loop and Georgia’s Innovation Crescent, and Access to the Peachtree corridor, Interstates 85 and 285 with close proximity to I-75 and Georgia 400.

There is one downside to living in Doraville. Residents on average deal with a bit of a commute, spending on average 31.99 minutes.   On the plus side, local public transit is widely used.

Doraville is also a wonderful ethnically diverse city. The residents here belong to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. People of Hispanic or Latino origin are the most prevalent group in Doraville.  Doraville has a lot of residents who were born outside of the US.  The most common languages spoken in Doraville are English and Spanish.

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